English Literature

Kate Chopin was thought to be ahead of her time in the views and telling of the misfortunes of feminism and slavery.  The injustice of the times is seen in many of her works, but the story of Desirees Baby takes the injustice as step further.  The story shows the ability of misinterpretation when one uses sight to know the race of another.  So like the critic Wai-chee Dimock, the injustice in Desirees Baby was the attribution of the misinterpreted racial identity of Desiree.

The first fact of the story is that Desiree was a foundling.  No one knew where she came from, and only guesses could be made about her origin.  Never once in the story as she is growing up or falling in love is anything mentioned other than at the beginning about her being orphaned.  The concept of race does not even enter the vocabulary, until she is grown and getting ready to marry Armand Aubignys, the son of a nearby plantation owner.  It states that he did not fall in love wither early on, even though he had known her since he was eight.  However, he fell in love with her and would not be talked out of it.  Chopin tells that he was reminded that she was nameless and that no one knew her origin, but he would not listen.  This act of Armand, prepares the reader for the worse possible scenario, even though the hope is that they are wrong.

Once married, the two move into the plantation belonging to Armand.  It is described as old and falling apart and even an air of sadness abound from the strict nature of the young man in relation to his Negros.  For him there is nothing worse than his slaves and his harshness and the sadness of the plantation creates the feel of injustice of the slaves in relation to their strict master.  The sadness and the disrepair just prepare the reader for more despair.

Upon the birth of the baby it is noted that Armand has eased up on his working of the slaves, he does not free them, but he is also not as strict.  Everything seems to be going fine, until Desiree compares her son to the young son of La Blanche as he fans the baby.  They are identical in many ways, which leads one to wonder if the young boy is also the offspring of Armand. It is in that moment that Desiree fears what Armand will do.  She asks him what is wrong with the baby and he tells her that the baby is black, which means that she too is black.  At this point, Armand wants nothing to do with either his wife or his child.  Even when she tries to tell him how wrong he is by using the example of La Blanche, Armand just ignores her pleads saying that La Blanche is black but as white as Desiree.

With Armand refusing to acknowledge Desiree or the baby, she leaves and goes into the bayou not believing that she is black, but realizing that she cant stay with him and she cannot return home to her parents. However, the real injustice is the fact that Armand has pushed Desiree and the baby away because he feared that they were black.  Armand burns everything in the house that belonged to Desiree and the baby.  He does not wonder where they have gone, he does not care.  They were black and he could not have them spoil his good name.

As he is burning the letter he found that Desiree had written to him, he comes across the letter that changes his world.  It is the letter from his mother acknowledging that he is the one who is black, not Desiree.  He still does not show remorse for his actions.  He also does not free his slaves just because he is one of them.  He has lost his love and his son because of his pride, and called them names they did not deserve because of his own ignorance in his parentage.

Throughout the main part of the short story, the reader is made to pity Desiree.  It is assumed that because of her unknown origin that she is the one who his black, and thereby deserves the actions of Armand against her and the child.  When the reality of the parentage is uncovered, the pity does not move from Desiree to Armand because it was he who created the mess with the possible death of Desiree and the baby.  He can only hold himself in contempt and live with the injustice that he has caused to his wife and child.